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It's the end of another year, a year that by many standards will never be forgotten.

Soap Opera Central has turned its attention to the stories that have made news on our web site over the past twelve months -- and there were many. As we reviewed the hundreds of stories, we selected the ten stories that we feel were the biggest news stories of 2001.

Our Top Ten list chronicles what we feel were the stories that had the most influence on the soaps in 2001. The stories cover firings, hirings and behind-the-scenes changes. Not all of our choices are single "events," rather some are trends. Agree or disagree, these are the items that made the biggest splash on the SOC site in 2001.

To make browsing of this special five-part section easier, our "Read The Story" links will open in new browser windows so that you will not lose your place in our top ten list.

For coverage of the stories voted the biggest for each of the ten soaps by soapcentral.com visitors, click here.

NUMBER TEN
Passionate About Passions

Though Passions, television's newest daytime soap, is just a shade over two years of age, its popularity continues to grow.

In January, the book "Hidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox." Within a few weeks, the book had made the New York Times' Best Seller List.

In July, Passions' creator and head writer James E Reilly announced plans to develop two Passions spinoffs, one for the Saturday morning teen crowd, as well as a primetime tele-movie based upon the soap.

One of the biggest trends of 2001 were guest appearances by daytime stars on soaps other than the ones that made them famous.

No one scored bigger than Days Of Our Lives with its February coronation episodes. Nine former daytime stars appeared during the three-day event, though few had any speaking parts - and several were gunned down in what turned out to be a royal bloodbath.

The event also had another bit of controversy: Former Another World star Victoria Wyndham (Rachel Cory) was said to have backed out of appearing on the show after learning that her role would not be a speaking part.

Read The StoryDaytime royalty to appear on DAYS coronation. [Feb 5, 2001]
Read The StoryFormer AW star backs out on DAYS appearance. [Feb 5, 2001]